New Starting Quarterbacks
With the preseason winding down, and only the extremely boring fourth game remaining, a few teams have officially named their starting quarterbacks for the 2008 season.
Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons. The 4th overall pick in this year’s draft will get his chance to prove what he has right from Week 1. I think that this has as much to do with the organization trying to turn the page from the Michael Vick controversy as it does with Ryan’s skills, but nevertheless, he will be under center for the Falcons when they open the season. Through three games in the preseason, Ryan is 32/52 for 307 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He was an incredible college quarterback, and Atlanta is certainly putting plenty of stock in him that those skills will translate to the pro game. For fantasy purposes, I would certainly not want this guy to be my every week starter, but with Michael Turner, Roddy White, Laurent Robinson, and Michael Jenkins, he has unproven, but talented playmakers around him. He certainly could surprise and have a great rookie year. More likely, however, he will have plenty of struggles, make some mistakes, and probably throw as many INTs as he does TDs, perhaps even more. The vast majority of rookie quarterbacks have tough first seasons, but he could be worth a roster spot as a bye week replacement.
Kurt Warner, Arizona Cardinals. With Matt Leinart nearly completing as many passes to the Raiders as he did to the Cardinals on Saturday night in his latest game, the deal was most likely sealed that Warner will start under center when the Cardinals open the season against San Francisco in Week 1. Leinart was awful Saturday night, completing just four of twelve passes for a pathetic 24 yards and 3 interceptions, including one where it looked like he threw it right to the Oakland defender. I can’t say that this is a huge surprise, I think that the Cardinals have really wanted Leinart to grab the job and run with it, but they have been keeping Warner around just in case he wasn’t ready. Warner hasn’t exactly had a lot of reps in the preseason, so far he is just 8/13 for 94 yards, but he is a veteran and knows the system really well. He might play a little more than most starters in that last preseason game just to get him fresh. For those of you who drafted Leinart, I would recommend dropping him unless you have no backup option at QB. He certainly could regain the job at any time during the season and the potential is certainly there. Warner shoots up the rankings, and could be a top 15 quarterback if he could ever learn to move in the pocket. He’s got a real strong arm and with Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, he has the weapons to put up some good statistics. When he starts, Warner is always a decent fantasy option.
J.T. O’Sullivan, San Francisco 49ers. At the start of the preseason, this was an open competition between former #1 overall pick Alex Smith, and Shaun Hill who finished the season strong for the Niners. In comes J.T. O’Sullivan who came with new offensive coordinator Mike Martz from Detroit and he completely stole this competition from the two actual competitors. For the preseason, O’Sullivan was 20/33 for 351 yards, two TDs and two INTs. He knows the Mike Martz system, and could have some sort of impact, but there is NO WAY that I would want O’Sullivan to be my weekly starting QB. He is nothing more than a deep sleeper.
Kyle Orton, Chicago Bears. He was the starter back in his rookie year of 2005, and he wasn’t all that impressive back then as he threw just nine touchdowns against 13 INTs. It is obvious that the Bears have absolutely no confidence in Rex Grossman if they are ready to give the ball to Orton. He is having a pretty solid preseason as he is 22/36 for 246 yards and two TDs with no INTs. I absolutely can NOT endorse having Orton on your roster in any format unless you are in a 32 team league and you need a starting QB. Orton will not have anything that resembles a positive fantasy season, and should be avoided if at all possible.
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